Critical Review by Joyce Carol Oates

In the following review, Oates calls Lucky an “exemplary memoir,” asserting that the memoir is original and direct.

Alice Sebold is the author of the first novel The Lovely Bones (2002), one of those bestsellers described as “runaway” to distinguish them from more lethargic bestsellers that merely slog along selling copies in the six-figure range. Though deftly marketed as an adult novel with a special appeal to women, The Lovely Bones is in fact a young-adult novel of unusual charm, ambition and originality. Its most obvious literary predecessor is Thornton Wilder's Our Town, in which the deceased Emily is granted omniscient knowledge of family, friends and community after her death; a subtly orchestrated wish-fulfilment fantasy...